Why not? After all, if Kim Kardashian can entertain millions (and make millions) by manufacturing drama for her faux reality-TV show, Mike Tyson can easily regale audiences by just telling the undisputed truth about the serial drama that has been his life … for real.
This is why the title of his one-man show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, says it all.
And here’s a news flash for fans of The Hangover who thought Mike was a laughing riot in his cameo role: he was not acting.
But surely no Broadway show has ever had a more riveting and titillating preview than the one Mike and the director of his show, Spike Lee, gave during an interview on the June-19 edition of the NBC TODAY Show.
For here in part is how his trademark, unfiltered stream of consciousness flowed when (soon-to-be-castaway) host Ann Curry asked him why he became a vegan:
Phew, wow, there was too many prison cells, too many jails, too many lawsuits, too many bankruptcies, too many women, too many venereal diseases, too many everything. I got tired… I really got tired of, you know, like every time a prostitute – I would head back from a trip – I had to sleep with her.
I was a prostitute hunter!
At which point Ann, blushing and cringing in equal measure, chimed in with:
Well, let me stop you there.
No doubt Spike was grateful for her interjection (or intervention – as might have been the case). Because it clearly prevented the endearingly loquacious Mike from giving away too much.
Of course we all know enough about his life story to know that it is replete with the kind of prurient details he was blurting out on breakfast television this morning. But the real draw will be watching Mike triumphing as a man on stage in ways that nobody could have imagined when he was still triumphing as a boxer in the ring.
Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth is showing at the Longacre Theatre from July 31 – August 5. Go see it!